The present invention relates to lampshades, a kit for assembling lampshades, and a novel method of manufacturing lampshades. The completed lampshade is a flexible, resilient, customizable lampshade that consists in a preferred embodiment of a series of elongate slotted bars between which removable paper or plastic panels are positioned and inserted into opposed elongate slots of the bars. The bars are interconnected by cords, wires or the like in the vicinity of the two ends of the bars. The bars and panels can be assembled from a kit and arranged in a particular configuration (i.e., cylinder, cone, pyramid) preferably having circular symmetry.
Lampshades are mounted on lamps to protect and decorate them, and to dim the direct light coming from the source of light that has over the centuries evolved from candle to bulb. There have been proposed numerous, more or less commonly adopted designs and methods for making lampshades. One traditional and very popular type of lampshade, known also as a xe2x80x9cTiffanyxe2x80x9d lampshade, consists of glass or mica panels joined by the lead came that have been in the recent past frequently replaced by adhesive foil and solder or adhesive modelling compounds that imitate the lead came construction. The method of fabricating this type of lampshade is very labour intensive and expensive. Although elegant, xe2x80x9cTiffanyxe2x80x9d lampshades are usually heavy, difficult to handle, susceptible to damage, and problematic to repair.
Methods for making and designing lampshades evolved over time. Probably the most common and the most inexpensive method of making lampshades today is a method that involves the use of a wire frame of a suitable shape onto which fabric or other material is stretched and fastened, either by sewing or by the use of adhesives. A typical frame for such lampshades has a top and bottom ring or band, interconnected by vertically oriented strut members. While this method of making lampshades is useful and very simple, it produces finished lampshades that require a shipping carton as large as the finished product. Further, such lampshades have an unalterable appearance. Lampshades manufactured in accordance with this particular method have in addition the disadvantage of being easily damaged, difficult to repair, and difficult to clean.
There have been many attempts to design an improved lampshade that would be flexibly decorative, but simple to manufacture, install and maintain. One proposed solution consists of the addition of removable and replaceable covers that can be washed or cleaned. A typical solution is to manufacture an easily replaceable fabric cover that is arranged over an existing lampshade (or a bare lampshade wire frame) to decorate and protect it. This design of replaceable cover offers the possibility to match a colour and pattern of the lampshade material with the specific style of the room in which the lampshade is being used.
The idea of alterable decorative lampshade covering has been greatly developed in the prior art. Aside from fabric covers used with standard lampshades disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,506 to Dunbar and 5,211,474 to Leitner, there have been proposed many methods of fabrication of customizable lampshades using other materials. The Throckmortons in their U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,120 disclose a lampshade structure that provides for the adherence of specially designed panels to a polystyrene lampshade. A lampshade with coiled interchangeable shades has been disclosed in Chan""s U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,817. This lampshade is made of a translucent sheet, arranged in a loop or coil which bulges outwardly to form a wall, which surrounds a lamp bulb assembly, can be of varying heights and shapes and is easily interchangeable. The frame assembly can be manufactured and sold as a modular kit, having vertical and horizontal parts, which can be of different form after the assemblage. The lampshade disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,896 to Mann consists of a rigid support frame that supports two or more design panels formed as bowed sheets, achieving an inwardly-illuminated effect for the design, thus enabling a multiplicity of decorative sheet panels to be used as lampshade components with no assembly task except inserting them into support grooves, with no glue or other fastening means. This lampshade, however, is very difficult to manufacture. The frame of the lampshade is not flexible, so unless only two supports are used for a total of only two panels, it requires a large shipping container. Yet with only two support members, the sheet panels may very easily fall out, because only a small amount of friction holds them along their edges in the slots. In addition, the appearance of the resulting lampshade is limited to circular cylindrical configurations, as the support members are always vertically oriented.
A lamp is an important part of any interior decoration, and, as is obvious from the prior art, many individuals have been trying to find convenient methods of manufacturing a lampshade that would be aesthetic, inexpensive and readily adaptable to match the style of other pieces of furniture in the room. Ideally, a lampshade should be attractive and adaptable in as many design variations as possible within the limitations of the structure of the frame. Another consideration in designing a lampshade is its safety. The design must maintain a prudent distance between any flammable materials and a bulb, which is a source of heat, usually present when light is generated in useful intensities. It is usually desirable that the material of the lampshade be at least partially translucent so light can be diffused to the surrounding area. A lampshade should be easily removable from the lamp so that the light bulb can be changed from above, rather than having the user touch the lower, metallic, possibly electrified screw-base of a broken or burnt out bulb.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a novel lampshade structure and economical method of fabricating and assembling the same.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a frame for lampshade that is adapted to receive removable and replaceable decorative paper or plastic panels.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a lampshade, which is customizable. The lampshade frames can be assembled to have different forms, depending upon the number of components used. Users can be provided with, or they can design and produce various replacement panels, in a multitude of patterns and colours and at little cost to renew, repair, or change the appearance of the lampshade.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such lampshade in kit form, readily assembled by the user, that can be compactly packaged and shipped.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a lampshade that can be easily lifted from the lamp, exposing the bulb and socket for cleaning or replacement.
In accordance with aspects of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an improved lampshade that consists of a plurality of semi-rigid or rigid elongate slotted bars, cords linking all the bars and resilient panels snugly fitting between the bars, the side edges of the panels fitting between consecutive bars into facing slots extending longitudinally along selected sides of the bars. The bars are arranged in a truncated conical or cylindrical configuration, or can have triangular (if the bars are three in number) or rectangular (if the bars are four in number) horizontal cross-section. Instead of having a truncated overall shape, the lampshade may also have an overall pyramidal or conical shape if the bars are continued upwardly to meet at an apex. Each bar has two or more parallel holes bored completely through it with one hole at or near each end and slots running longitudinally along two sides of each bar beginning and ending at or near the holes mentioned above. The exact position of the slots depends upon the number of the bars and the dimensions of the panels that fit into the slots to form, with the bars, the completed lampshade. When there are a lot of bars forming, with other constituent elements to be described below, the frame for the lampshade, the elongate slots will be formed on opposed sides of the bars. When the bars are three or four in number, it may be more convenient to place the slots on two mutually perpendicular sides of each bar. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the slots are placed on two opposite sides of each bar, precisely on those two sides on which the holes are visible. In each case, the exact position of the holes should be preferably adapted to the arrangement of the slots. Normally all of the bars for a given lampshade will be identical to one another.
The slots can also be formed as a series of several elongate longitudinally spaced recesses machined or otherwise formed in the sides of the bars. In this case, the shapes of the edges of the shading panels have to be adapted to the position and the length of the slots on the bars. Providing an interrupted series of slots instead of a single continuous slot would significantly complicate the manufacture of the lampshade, but may be convenient in some cases, for example when the bars are formed from hollow plastic or metal.
All bars are linked at one end thereof by a cord (this definition also includes any cable or wire) passing through a hole in one bar and then through the corresponding hole in each adjacent bar in turn until it returns to the position from which it started, describing a rough circle (in the case of a lampshade whose final shape is a cylinder or cone) or other contour that is coaxial with and perpendicular to the axis of a whole structure. The bars are similarly linked at the other end thereof; accordingly, at least two cords are required, each to connect one set of holes. The two free ends of each cord are preferably joined inside one hole so that the free ends are not visible. The overall length of the cord is fixed, thereby limiting the maximum combined distance between the bars at each end of the frame. Normally the bars will be equally spaced from one another along the length of the cord. Assuming a multiplicity of bars and upper and lower cords of different lengths, it can be seen that this design enables the formation of a truncated conical configuration of the lampshade.
The bars can be secured in specific positions on each cord by using adhesives or mechanical means such as crimped tubes. Tubes of malleable metal, slightly longer than the length of each hole, can be tightly inserted into the holes on each bar so that their ends protrude from the holes. Each tube can be further secured by a washer placed tightly over each protruding end, one face of each washer positioned closely to the adjacent side wall of the bar. The cord then passes through the tube and the bars are secured in specific position on the cord by crimping the projecting parts of the tubes onto the cord or by applying adhesives. When the tubes are crimped and deformed, the washers cannot slide off the tubes and thus are automatically secured in their position as well. If the panels are stiff enough to maintain the overall shape of the lampshade, the bars can be arranged in their preferred configuration on each cord by insertion of panels of specific selected form into the slots, without using any additional attaching means to secure the bars onto the cords.
In order to attach the lampshade to the lamp, a transverse notch is removed from the inner face of each bar at fixed distance from the hole on the upper end so as to form a transverse channel in the upper portion of each bar. A lampshade support element having an outer periphery of the required shape (i.e., triangular, rectangular, or an annulus of circular or other suitable shape) is fitted snugly into the set of channels. A cross member is secured to the peripheral portion of the support element and is provided centrally with a standard means for mounting the support on the lamp base. If the lampshade is to be of truncated conical shape, for example, the peripheral portion of the support may be a rigid circular ring. The rigidity of the ring also helps to maintain the specific preferred shape of the lampshade.
The bars might be fabricated from one specific material or a combination of various materials. In the preferred embodiment, the bars are made of lightweight wood, which helps to reduce the overall weight of the structure; other convenient materials are aluminium and plastic. If they are fabricated from metal or plastic, the bars may be hollow and may thus have void spaces at their ends. In such cases, a plug made to fit into each end of the bar can be provided to improve the overall look of the lampshade. The plug can serve exclusively a decorative purpose, or can serve to secure the cord in a specific position in the bar by clamping, pinching or distorting it, thus eliminating the need for other cord-affixing components.
Resilient panels, typically of trapezoidal or rectangular shape, are inserted into the slots in the bars and fit tightly between the bars. These shading panels are an important part of the whole structure, as they help hold the bars apart. The panels may be made of synthetic paper such as YUPO(trademark), which is very suitable for this purpose, or of thin plastic sheets. By using such techniques as process colour printing, manufacturers will have the possibility to develop many variations of panels with different colours, patterns or graphic designs that they consider to be suitable in order to make the finished lampshade attractive to a wide customer base. The panels can also be changed seasonably, or at any occasion when it is convenient or desirable to modify the look of the lampshade.
The structure of the above-specified lampshade, which can be manufactured in kit form for ease of shipping and readily assembled by the user, is very flexible, resilient, customizable, resistant to damage, and facile to maintain. In exploring further the possibilities offered by the present design, the introduction of synthetic paper for this purpose will also enable individual users to design their own personalized lampshades.